#I'm imagining them each with a gimmick

[xaphrin]

Me: *just chilling*

My Brain: Hey, you know what? I don't think you've ever written a fic where one of the bat boys is undercover as an erotic dancer. Imagine it!

Me: ...

Me: . . . *pulls out laptop* Goddamnit!!

[little-pondhead]

Thinking about if Dani ever gets added to the Villain Everlasting Trio au, like how would she fit in? Obviously the JL would have to figure out she's a clone and try and figure out why she exists ("maybe fenton is just that narcissistic?" flash asks, meanwhile batman is already texts agent a to get ready another room in addition to the three already prepared). Maybe she acts like the innocent kid in danger until heroes get close? batfamily trying to pspspsps her away from fenton? The trio collectively calling her their daughter?

I love this au so much, even if I still don't fully forgive you for making Tucker hot.

The way I SPRINTED to my computer.

Disclaimer: This particular AU has nothing to do with Fun Sized and Feral by @nutcase8691 or my Dani Fenton redesign from a while ago. This isn’t really important, but I thought the plot of this au might be straying the tiniest bit too close to the Feral AU (which I love btw) and I just didn’t want to cause confusion.

TLDR: Dani had to mature too quickly in their home world, so when she arrived in the DC universe, she finally got to slow down and be a kid. :)

Okay okay. Give me a moment. Since everyone is acting like the opposite of their usual self when they're playing villains, your question was, how would she fit in? To backtrack to this earlier post, I said that each of the trio's specific gimmicks somehow ties into their everyday lives. They looked at their immediate friends, family and acquaintances, picked out the traits they saw as 'villainous,' and then applied that to themselves.

Danny became a mad scientist because even though his parents love him through and through, they still hurt him the most. The threat of capture and dissection from the GIW didn't help, either. He wears a suit similar to his parents, pushes his hair up so he can see better, and his white lab coat looks a little like the GIW's suits. The suit is also red, which is the opposite of green, distancing himself further from his hero life as Phantom and connecting him more to his civilian self, where red is present on his shirt. He refuses to use his powers, as well.

Sam looks like an angel, which seems odd given her completely goth look and slightly pessimistic attitude. And if she uses her plant powers (shut up, she totally has them) as part of Team Phantom, then that rules out using them as a villain. They want to completely separate these alter-egos from each other. Well, one of the most significant sources of strife in Sam's personal life is her parents. In the show, they're seen constantly fighting with Sam, trying to mold her into their perfect daughter, when Sam is very obviously happy with how she is right now. So as a silent fuck you to her parents, Sam gets a hold of a Realm artifact, the halo, which gives her a pair of ghostly wings and the ability of flight. Now, she's the one in the air, and Sam is still doing what she does best, even as an angel. She tries to show the world that not all angels are perfect, and in fact, they can be downright monstrous. (This is where her more aggressive and destructive attitude comes in.)

As far as I'm aware, Tucker doesn't have any trauma related to his parents. (The lucky bastard.) He is the tech-nerd stereotype, however. And since he's from a cartoon from 2004, that means he gets bullied. A lot. The show focuses mainly on Danny, but you cannot tell me Tucker wasn't bullied like that, either. For the sake of the au, let's say Danny was taking all the beatings for Tucker. Maybe he was in canon; I can't remember. But not only is Tucker being physically bullied but so is his best friend. (Eventually lover!) And imagine his feelings when Team Phantom shows up to a ghost fight, and Tucker is absolutely useless the entire time. He just can't help at all. Danny and Sam are on the front lines, redirecting hits and doing damage control, and here he is, waiting for the Wi-Fi to catch up on his PDA. It eats him up. He wants to be helpful in more ways than one, and that's what the DC universe gives him. He takes another Realm artifact; this time, it's actually his by birthright, and the artifact drastically increases his physical power, just like he's always wanted. He learns Egyptian magic and dresses in a way that gives homage to his time in Egypt-which was traumatizing by itself, but hey, he has sweet beetle magic now.

Basically, Fenton, Manson, and Foley are all the results of the trio's frustrations and fears. They become the things they stress about the most to help cope with their everyday lives. The DC universe is their outlet.

So where does Dani fit in?

Well, Dani is a clone, as we know. Her creation and introduction to the world were rather sudden if you compare her to a typical baby. And that's what she is; a baby. Unless you jumped the timeline far into the future, Dani is barely a year old in canon (I think.) And after her team-up with Danny to defeat Vlad, she makes the decision to leave Amity and travels the world. She has to navigate an entire world independently, even if Danny wants to help her. So now, plop her in the DC verse. What's the opposite of an independent clone who's had to fend for herself from a very young age and has had almost no real familial bonds?

A kid. A scared, touched-starved child who's had no one to look after her for who knows how long. (Vlad doesn't count here.) Dani gets to the DC verse and cries because she and Danny can finally bond like she always wanted to. She doesn't have to put up a strong front because the trio is there to protect her. Dani is extremely young, and now she can finally be a kid. It's not mental age regression; instead, Dani no longer has to hold herself back from doing childish things or crying. Both are things that could be a danger when you're living on the streets. She spends almost all her time here now.

The Everlasting Trio had already missed her before, but they had just fully adopted her in this new world. Dani is their baby. Their little girl. She didn't ask to be born-she shouldn't have to suffer because it was unsafe at home. Well, they can make a new one, just for her, here in this universe. And look! There’s more clones for her to bond with! The GZ is more accessible than ever, and their commute between universes really isn’t that bad. They like it here! And the heroes and villains will never take her away, no matter how hard they try. Sure, Dani can have playdates with some of them, but she will wail and scream if anyone so much as suggests she stay the night without her parent's permission.

Oh, and she never stops being a little shit. If anyone doubts that Fenton and Dani are related, they are simply ushered online to see that one viral clip of Dani latching on to King Shark with her teeth and not letting go in the middle of a shopping plaza. The camera pans to the left a moment later, and the audience spots Fenton doing the exact same thing to John Constantine.

The first time the Justice League meets Dani, it's right after she got lost during a spacewalk with Danny and Sam. She enters the first place she sees, the Watchtower, and breaks down in front of Wonder Woman about how she can't find her parents and doesn't know how to get home. The heroes are baffled and try to comfort her until Danny comes barging in five minutes later, panicking over his baby girl missing. They reunite, the heroes are reeling, and Superman mentions he didn't think Fenton was old enough to have a kid.

Fenton looks up from his bear hug and goes: "Huh? Oh, no. I'm only seventeen. (work with me here) Dani is technically my clone, but we adopted her properly as soon as possible."

And now the League has two issues. Their most annoying enemy is only seventeen. And he has a clone.

What the f u c k.

Extra analysis: Dani's outfit is cleaner and a little fancier than what she wore in the show. She ties her hair up like Tucker and pins her bangs back like Sam. She already looks identical to Danny but likes to wear his sweaters, especially in cold weather. The oversized clothes remind her of her time with Danny in Amity Park, and helps hide her physique better, so it's hard to tell how old she is. She wears leggings to show that she no longer has to fight for her life every day on the streets. Now that the trio adopted her, she can relax and let someone else take the hits for a while. (We all know how fast leggings and tights can be ruined when doing literally anything.) Fright Knight gifts her a cursed doll that helps protect her in stressful situations and functions like an SOS beacon. JLD hates the bear. (She named it Strawbeary.)

She acts on her impulses more often, which the trio sees as a good thing. Even if that impulsive desire gets her in trouble, it gives everyone a chance to learn and grow as a family. Dani also refrains from going ghost at first, following her dad's wishes. Right now, she's just giving herself a break from her previous nomadic lifestyle. After a bit, she and Danny will bond over their halfa status, and she'll grow into her own unique core and powerset. The heroes dread the day the littlest Fenton decides to join her parents in their shenanigans.

[sanzaibian]

Which writers do you recommend ? What stories did you like?

I follow quite a bit of creators, so it would be quite overwhelming to include all of them ! So I'll only include those I especially like and have things to say about.

I'll of course shoutout @joshslater, he's honestly a bit of an idol to me, since his stories are always so imaginative - and well-written ! In that category I also add @salmonskinrolltf of which I especially like the multi-parters, and how he explores a gimmick very thoroughly, @maletfsstories who always write great stories that hook me up even on kinks I don't have, and @rozza22365 who basically was the one to introduce me to the guilty pleasure of gay to straight by his thrilling prose !

I'll also shoutout the very prolific @papermoon357 (because, let's be honest, who wouldn't !), whose skill really shines in the stories he posts between captions, @fredwkong and @octuscle who both have a similar style of reader-driven posting that brings a ton of varied content, with each their own spin (thinking about it, it might very well be in the continuation of the style of feu collegenerdtojock, whose tumblr has been taken over by pastry for some reason), as well as @coyotes-rules-of-change who always nails down perfectly what I find hot in tf !

And for newer writers, I'll shoutout @occamstfs who does an extremely good job, @tidetfs who seems to have pretty similar interests as me, and @alphajocklover who kinda does have that old tumblr tf community vibe to his stories !

Finally, a few mentions that I don't know how to group, I shoutout @dreamingtf and his stories that very often make me feel good, @idesofrevolution who has a nack of writing immersive stories, and @nonotnolan who writes some really sweet love stories ^^ (and I'll add an honorable mention to Programming Prince, who was banned multiple times from Tumblr, and since quit writing stories, but was very impactful in my introduction to the community ^^)

As for stories, well, you make me dig deeper, the list has already been so long to write ! But here are some of my all-time favorites, of which I link through my likes/main blog (so that if the link perishes, it perishes with that account ^^') :

@fullfriendnerdpurse's trio of alpha car, forced imposter and how to make a douchebag (not the actual title), all are great concepts of which I love to throw myself inside, and I think could all make a thrilling longer story, @rozza22365's Brotherly Changes, that one story that convinced me to follow him, @alphajocklover's Unmoved, which resonates with my personnal experiences a lot, feu tyranitartf's I'm a dumb jock, very hypnotic and thrilling, @anomanlyarchives' text message swap (not the actual title), of which I love the love story, I-don't-remember-whom's Chess Rival, republished by @marcoh1234, a good all classic that just doesn't get old, @erogenousmind's Turing, one of those stories that just scratches my existential horror erotica itch, @0ng0ingw0rk's To Love and to Cherish..., a great love story, @joshslater's Wet Dreams, the story I blame for my diaper fetish, Happy Endings' The Mind Palace (gayspiralstories), honestly my favorite story of all times, I love the concept, love the execution, the sweetness and the corruption. I do an RP on it (or at least did until I took a break), and I think that's the one concept I won't be bored of ^^'

There's a buch of other stories I love and would love to show off better, but that list is already long enough, so I focused on the most impactful stories ^^'

[petra-creat0r]

Deltarune: Fool's Fate Chapter 1 Shopkeep

Okay so this should be the last important character ref for Chapter 1, aka the Attic World. (i need a better name for this Dark World.) After this my plan is to post the minor characters like enemies, NPCs, and Minibosses but once those are out, I'm not sure what to start on next. I have many things I could work on, it's just a matter of choosing. Thus why shortly after posting this, I'll be putting up a poll. Anyways! Onto Jeanie!

The shopkeep of the first area, aka the Dusty Plains, Jeanie (like the spirit) is a mystic snake who lives alone in her tent and tells the fortunes of whoever enters. If we're to think in terms of mapping parts of the Attic World to Chapter 1 of Deltarune proper, imagine Jeanie as the Seam of the chapter. Some of her dialogue even makes mention to the cat plush, even though the two have never met proper.

Her name is a play on "genie", being said the same, just spelled differently, and tying to her mystic, fortune-teller vibe and occupation. As for inspiration, asides from taking on the appearance of a hooded cobra (a lot of the Attic World has some snake ties because of Broadway), Jeanie is an old fortune telling machine. I'm not sure if she's the full machine, or just a part of it, but that is her Light World counterpart. Her connection to tarot cards is likely due to the machine incorporating them into it's gimmick.

Being the first shopkeep, Jeanie's wares are rather basic. A healing item found a few times prior to meeting her, aka the Fortune Cookie, a stronger healing item in the Stitched Stew, a basic armor in the Crystal Lace, and a weapon for Chicago in the Fortune Cutters. I have descriptions for each of those items incase anyone's interested.

For a better look at her character, here's a quote from her shop dialogue when you ask Jeanie about herself.

"The name is Jeanie, like the spirit. Mystical Serpent of Mystery. This tent is my where I sell mystical charms and read palms, paws, and tails. I've seen quite a lot in my time telling fortunes. The past, the present... Perhaps even the future. Hee hee hee..."

Aside from asking about herself, during their first encounter with Jeanie, the player would be able to ask Jeanie about the Magician, ask for a Card Reading, or ask Jeanie how she was expecting the party based on her shop enter dialogue (depicted in the image above). Some of her dialogue will change later in the chapter, mostly after running into her a second time in the second area (the Feathered Forest) or once encountering Dorothy (the secret boss) both before and after fighting her. Under the cut is a list of what Jeanie has to say in her talk options.

You were expecting us?

"Legends have spread far and wide of Lightners who will come to seal fountains. Three legendary heroes who will save both light and dark from calamity. More recently, there have been tales and rumors among the Upper Choir of three young heroes destined to replace the Blue Knight and dethrone the High Priestess.

Call it premotion, call it fate, if you will... I simply call it inevitable that we would meet."

The Magician?

"Hmm? I'm afraid I do not know of the cat you speak off." She grins "Hee hee hee. Just kidding. You mean Magico, correct? He is quite the trickster, isn't he? I heard he's been trying capture the Lightners who've come to seal the Fountain. All in the name of the High Priestess. He wasn't always under her reign. None of us were. Our land did not have a singular, set ruler until recently. We were ruled by a collective choir. Until one day, a mysterious knight appeared, and appointed the highest Choir member, the Priestess, into power. After which, she appointed Magico the Head Magician and her right hand. It's been quite some time since this land has seen such upset in the Choir. Not since... Well, perhaps it's better you not learn of that just yet."

Card Reading (Beginning of Chapter, before Broadway joins party)

"The Fool, The Magician, and The High Priestess. It seems your journey is just beginning, young heroes. Yet I sense great potiental and power shining within you. Perhaps such potential will aid you in the facing the powers and entities yet unknown. Even still, buying a small protection charm wouldn't hurt."

Reading (Encountering Jeanie outside of her shop in Feathered Forest with Broadway)

"I left my cards back at my tent, but I can still read your fate through the vibrations of your soul. Hmm... Interesting. I sense a lack of control. A slipping of string. Perhaps brought on by someone close to you interfering with your prior norm? ... I suggest you talk things out with them, young hero."

Card Reading (Back tracking after CK and Remie re-join the party again but before the Chapel)

"Three of Cups, Eight of Swords, and Five of Wands. It seems the rest of your party has returned to you. Though you've been apart for a time, it's important to remember the value of working as a team. Especially since a great challenge still awaits you all on the path ahead. The Chapel and Priestess still lie ahead, young heroes. Be weary not to let your own ambition and feelings get in the way of your collective goal."

Card Reading (Back tracking after entering the Choral Chapel)

"The High Priestess, reversed Nine of Swords, and Nine of Wands. It seems the final leg of this journey lays before you, young ones. Soon you shall duel with the Priestess to end her tyrannical reign. Bringing a new light to this land. However such a battle can wait for a little while. Your adventure has been long and tiring, has it not? Why not take a short rest? I can make some tea and read the leaves before you must set off once more."

Odd Doll (After first talking to Dorothy)

"I sense you three have come across a strange presence oddly familiar but which you've never known. A strange prisoner whom speaks in stitched together tongue? ... So I see. Seems the Magician couldn't hide her from all eyes forever. ... I see many paths if you chose to go down this route more, yet oddly enough... The one in which you try and release her holds the most promise. It would not be my personal advice but... The stars have yet to steer me wrong yet. Perhaps dealing with the doll once and for all will yield a brighter future for everyone. ... Perhaps it was wrong to lock her away to begin with. A key? I do not hold it, but I have a sense as to were the Magician hid it. Hidden among the trees, in the thicket of the dark. You'll find the path you seek, if you chose to take the lark. That's all the advice I can give, so I would advise turning to the Magician if you get stuck further. I wish you luck on your journey, young ones, and my the stars guide your path."

"Gate blocking your path? As I said, I can offer no more advise. Perhaps seek the Magician for assistance."

Odd Doll (After opening Dorothy's cell)

"So you say you've opened the door? That explains the wrathful energy I feel far away..." I'm afraid can't see where your future leads from here. Do tell me how this plays out, if you can. Or don't. I merely predict your path, only you can decide it."

About DOROTHY (After defeating Dorothy)

"Judgment, Reversed six of wands, and The Chariot. I may not have known that doll for long, but I knew her cards, her fate, the path the stars laid out for her. Or perhaps the path she forged herself… Once she was nothing more than a blank doll. No face, no name, no path. She was a fool just as you are. Yet one day, she came across a strange someone and it seemed her stars had finally aligned. She had been gifted an identity and purpose from some higher power, she said. To this day, I still don't quite understand what she meant by that. Rambling on about the Truth, or our purpose, of creating our own stars…Yet I didn't NOT understand at the same time… At some point she was let into the Upper Choir, but even they eventually grew annoyed with her ramblings. And so they cast her out. Exiled her back to these dust ridden plains. She grew enraged, filled with an anger and hatred for all that betrayed her. She had to be locked away before she could hurt anyone else. It shames me that I had to be the one to call the guard… Ever since, I've mulled over the cards and stars, seeking answers to what she said. Yet the skies shone dark and the cards even darker. The only thing I've come back with are more questions than when I started. It makes one wonder…How much of the universe and fate can be understood and predicated… And how much can only be navigated by the blind?"

We Won (After defeating Dorothy)

"The six of wands, the Tower, and the Devil. So, it is true? You really defeated her? Then you three truly must be the heroes of legend after all… However be warned, DOROTHY is merely the first step in your fool's journey. There is still a long way to go, and many more obstacles to face. And one day soon… even the most darkest evil of all. Hee hee hee… Well, I can only wish you luck. Perhaps once you reach that point You can come back here and I shall read your scattered destiny once more."

-------------------------------------------

31 39s 38, 27 6 7 4 50 39 44, 15 19t 21ly

31 39s 38, 27 6 7 5 50 39 44, 16 6 9

31 39s 38, 27 6 7 1 50 39 44, 41 re49 39

31 39s 38, 27 6 7 3 50 39 44, 40 6 2 25

31 39s 38, 27 48 8st 50 50 39 23, 35 32 27 13

31 39s 35 32, 27 34 4feated. 50 39 35 32, 46s 10 47ed.

31 33s 34 39, 27 34 & 29 50r 18, yet 6 2 45ed

31 28s 22, can 35t 6 11ed 50 28 36, of 26 this 10 20s

31 43s the 24, 27 43s 15 in 47, 30 & 42ess, 34ly 14.

31 39s 38, 24ish 27 39ed 6. 50r 47 37 32. 17 39, will 35t 50?

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s3 episode 20 thoughts

dare i say it, once again… new favorite episode??

okay, my previous favorite episode was an ENTIRELY different direction from this one, but i’d say there should be one best episode for serious stuff and one best episode for the silly!!! and this takes the silly crown!! and tbh i can't make an actual hard and fast rating anyway because there are so many great things to choose from- but this is amongst them, for me, in terms of legendary episodes!

please, join me on this ride, which i enjoyed each second of, and will need to someday rewatch without pausing every 0.5 seconds to jot something i noticed down. the live experience begins beneath the cut.

it’s been 84 years…. (3 days since i’ve seen an episode)

ooo, this sounds interesting! is scully going to work with an author?? are we gonna learn more about the things that she reads?? this is prime content to a person like me

stars…. space ship….. filled with tubes and wires and other such things…… just kidding!!! it’s a guy working on some electrical stuff. whilst two people drive by!! i thought they were mulder and scully at first but they are not

“um, i don’t want to scare you, but i think i’m madly in love with you” says this guy who is not mulder but actually named harold to this girl who is not scully but is actually named chrissy. OH! and this is the first date. so that was a weird thing to say. i thought it was quite sweet at first but that changes things for sure.

GASP! UFO be upon them. creatures are coming out to get them. she asks what they are and he says “how the hell should i know?” ooo ooo i know! they are aliens 👽 and then the two fall on top of each other like they are knocked out… and the aliens drag them away???? 

until a king kong looking fellow rolls up. very puppet-y. and the aliens don’t know what this creature is either!!! and also ask what that thing is and the response is “how the hell should i know?” haha i see what you did there... out aliening the alien

bum bum bum bum…. (<- my attempt at recreating the noise of the intro)

now, what was that? i'm stuck on the king kong and godzilla love child puppet….

scan up on mulder’s iconic poster!!! and a guy is here who is yet again not mulder. his name is mr. chung and mulder will NOT talk to him… oooh, what is their beef…?

mr. chung is saying he always felt alienated on this planet, who can even imagine actual aliens! and he has a point there.

oh! scully is a big fan of this fellow, which is why she agreed to talk to this guy!!! he calls her beautiful, which is true, but time and place 

so he isn’t even interested in aliens, but his publisher said he should write a book on the matter. he is going to create a NEW genre: non fiction science fiction, a gimmick that will give him money. this seems somewhat disappointing to scully, who must be a believer in artistic integrity, but i find his honesty refreshing.

she wants him to tell the truth, but apparently he spent 3 months in kass county where all this stuff went down, and NO ONE could tell him what actually happened. the truth is just as subjective as reality. which sounds like something i learned in history class. and, it helps explain why everyone with an alien story starts with some variation of, "i know this sounds crazy, but"...

so he wants HER version of hearing of the case. also he touches her arm and... let's slow down a little there, mr. chung.

OHHH we are seeing a story told in flashbacks!!!! narrated by scully!! how wonderful!!!

this girl is suffering from “missing time”, a phenomenon we have come to know well here on this blog. also her clothes are inside out and she has signs of abuse. not looking great for her.

apparently mulder prefers the term “abductee” to “experiencer”, which mr. chung has valid disagreements with. we go on, however.

this poor girl is seeing aliens that are not there and her nose is bleeding. WAIT! it’s the guy from before! harold and chrissy! he comes to her window to say he did everything he could but she rejects him, thinking he had drugged and assaulted her. yikes.

harold is testifying that he was abducted by aliens, but no one believes him. he stuck to his story UNTIL our agents arrived!

(MULDER SAYS SOMETHING VERY OUT OF POCKET HERE ABOUT GOING TO PRISON BUT LET'S KEEP MOVING)

despite this announcement of presumed prison time, mulder brings chrissy in for questioning. asking her if she has all the symptoms of “post abduction disorder”, which she confirms, while scully rolls her eyes with great force in the background. and he talks the girl’s parents into letting her do hypnosis.

“what is your opinion of hypnosis?”, mr. chung asks scully, which is something i also have been dying to know! i mean, we saw her do a little bit before, but it didn’t seem to be a positive experience. she says it has therapeutic value, but has never been proven to enhance memory; it even makes memory worse. a very balanced and doctor-ly answer! 

LMAO scully is so cute… mr. chung mentions another book he wrote and she proclaims it “one of the greatest thrillers ever written” <- STOP I LOVE HER SHE IS SUCH A NERRRRD 😭😭

mr. chung said the FBI knew nothing about how hypnosis worked back during the MK ULTRA days… and he is fascinated by the idea of a person’s consciousness being transformed by listening to words. admittedly very fascinating! you could probably say the same about meditation, no?

(but he speaks to the power of storytelling, i realize now in hindsight! how we find ourselves wrapped up in the tales of things that never happened, how it fills us with sorrow or joy! how fascinating! i see what you did there, writers!)

cutscene to hypnotizing chrissy. who is seeing aliens. she is on a space ship wearing a fit that looks very similar to a lady gaga chromatica era performance, but it has tubes attached to her. harold is in a very similar contraption!!!!

she says the aliens are arguing without moving their mouths and she hears the lead alien in her head saying it’s for the good of her planet. and he is stealing her memories? um. for what purpose...

scully is serving looks in the corner while this goes down, looking mad as hell and very good. she says chrissy's abduction story seems a little TOO typical… and i have to agree! but mulder says no, there are TWO people with the same story! they can't both be lying, surely!

LMAOOOO they play with censoring the dude who comes in and yells at them… “well, of course he didn’t actually say ‘bleeped’” 

(BAHAHA i’m loving this insight into how scully’s memories operate. so this angry man is named detective manners)

“you still gonna hold the boy?” “oh, you bet your blankety-blank bleep i am” <- i am a simple woman, and an actor delivering these lines with a straight face whilst surrounded by other actors keeping a very straight face is going to make me cackle. look at her looking so bored while he says that. i’m howling!!!!

anyway, harold has a very different story on what went down that night, that did not seem to involve gaga-inspired fits, but instead they were both placed in electrified cages. while another alien in a nearby cage smokes a cigarette. he seems to be what i would call “an unbothered king”

in this story, harold claims that he will protect chrissy and never let anything happen to her, and of course something immediately happens to her while he hides in the corner like a baby. lmao.

and this alien is talking in english! not telepathically! he keeps repeating “this is not happening” until harold ALSO gets taken by the thing that took chrissy. 

mulder is trying to figure out what is going on, but his predictions aren’t lining up with what happened to harold. scully is pacing and looking pissed, and again, very pretty.

“you know when you’re a kid, and you tore the legs off a bug for no reason?”, asks harold (cutscene to mulder’s face with visible confusion) LMAOOOOOOO

scully getting to business: did you engage in consensual sexual intercourse that night? she is not messing around! she's had it up to here with the shenanigans of harold and chrissy!

harold is very very quiet until he says that her father will kill him if he finds out!!! gasp!!! confirmation!!!

so is this whole story just… a cover up??? for fornication???

scully vs mulder time. “so what if they’re having sex?” he asks, which is funny coming from him; and anyway, he claims it happened BEFORE the alien stuff went down. but she thinks they’re traumatized, and that is more likely than alien abduction. 

until detective manners bursts in and claims he has an eyewitness to what went down! he used more blanks and bleeps and again the straight faces killllll me

and ALL OF THEM telling their stories start with “i know how crazy this all sounds” just as mr. chung had described LMAOOO. now who tf is this dude who says he was an eyewitness?

(i’m taking soooo many notes because i keep laughing and noting things. which is a good problem to have!)

this dude, named roky, spent 48 hours straight writing down what he saw, and said that by looking at this, they are putting their lives in danger. so okay. better be juicy.

he says his garage door opened up, a car pulled in, and a man told him some facts about venus. he says they put him in a trance! and that they were in all black……

mr. chung says that myths of men in black garments are nothing new!!! so take THAT, men in black legends, you are one of many.

back at roky's place, the other dude in black says jimmy carter thought he saw a UFO once, but it was just venus. roky is scandalized, grabs his paper, and states that he is a REPUBLICAN.

(omg jimmy carter is going to be 100 in a few months god willing…..)

this man in black is saying that roky saw VENUS and nothing else, just VENUS. and not to tell anyone he saw anything but VENUS or he will die. and then the car drives away. 

so after that build up, he gives mulder the manuscript, and says he is packing up and leaving. bye bye roky. hope you find some peace.

mulder is reading this story to scully who is sprawled on the bed, looking, again, angry and hot. it seems he is describing that earlier puppet-y action.

oh! roky was the electrical guy from the very beginning!!! he hides in his truck but the king kong looking fellow says “be not afraid” and that he is needed for the good of the earth? what is with the good of the earth here.

cutscene to a very baffled looking scully laying in bed as mulder continues to read LMAOOOOOO

AND ROKY’S STORY SAYS HE WENT NOT TO OUTER SPACE, BUT INNER SPACE HELPPP!!!! now, inner space is towards the core, if you, like me, were unaware. also, king kong godzilla dude’s name is Lord Kinbote, so jot that down.

mr. chung says he has a copy of roky’s manifesto- which was sent to his publisher? and LMAOOO the story is disturbing both for its soul orgy scenes and the fact that it is written as a screenplay 

well, surely your partner didn’t believe any of it, mr. chung states! “mulder’s had his share of peculiar notions” is scully's carefully worded reply... LMAOOO 

cutscene to her sitting up from the bed and calling him nuts <- LMAOOOOO but HE says that whatever roky saw may have triggered some delusions, and that the only story that doesn’t add up is chrissy’s, so he is calling to get her re-hypnotized, much to scully’s indignation!

so back to the hypnosis. and chrissy is now mirroring harold's story exactly. oh! she says the people who took them are from the air force?? so where did the gaga slay outfits go... 

the air force men are arguing in front of her. and then they say to “rinse her out”. saying it is for the good of her country. and stealing her memories!

so WHO is doing the real memory stealing here….. the aliens or the government?? an age old question!!! one that is at the heart of this series.

scully and mulder fight over what is going on, and he thinks that this might have nothing to do with aliens, until detective manners shows up with news that a crazy blankety blank claims to have an ALIEN BODY!!

(what if it’s a raccoon with mange…)

again, the man recounting this story begins with “i know how crazy this is going to sound”, but then says he wants to be abducted by aliens. well! i’m sure that’s a sexual thing i don’t care to unpack.

cutscene to mr. chung interviewing this same man, who wishes to go where finding a job is not a requirement. he was looking in a field for UFOs. and when he called the authorities upon spotting one, the agents show up!!

he says that scully was a man dressed as a woman but not pulling it off??? RUDE AS HELL! jail for 10,000 years. "HER HAIR WAS A LITTLE TOO RED, YOU KNOW?" LMAOOOOO and mulder was the “tall, lanky one” with a blank expression. well yeah that is an accurate depiction.

AND ACCORDING TO THIS GUY'S ACCOUNT, WHEN MULDER SEES THE BODY, HE SHRIEKS LIKE A STARTLED SQUIRREL I’M CRYINGGGG. so scully says to wrap this body up!

BUT THEN SHE GRABS HIM AND SAYS TO NEVER TELL ANYONE HE SAW THIS I’M CRYINGGGG... that had to be such a silly scene to film 

okay, seeing the part about subjective truths now. this is so funny... why is this loser making scully a hater in his version!!!

she’s PISSED to hear he claims she said this LMAOOO and that is ridiculous!! they even let him view the autopsy!!

so mulder takes this weirdo’s camera and records the autopsy?? scully cuts his brain open. and the tape ends up on late night television LMAOOOO

SCULLY IS SO EMBARRASSED THAT SHE IS ON THIS ALIEN HOAX AUTOPSY TAPE... I’M CRYING SOMEONE SAVE HER!!! and the host of whatever show they end upon is STUPENDOUS YAPPI FROM THE CLYDE BRUCKMAN EPISODE!!!! i'm howlingggg

she’s mad that whoever got the film edited out all the important scientific findings!!! like the two layers of skin!!!

wait. it’s a zipper. this is a dead guy in an alien suit. LMAOOOOOOOOO

the weird UFO cameraman kid is ill after realizing it was an ordinary dead guy, and scully looks deeply pained as he runs away to get sick LMAOOO

so: who is this dead guy? he was in the air force! and his name is robert. but who arrives but more people from the air force!! are they here to bury him?? or question the agents…

the folks from the air force want robert back, so she has to break the news that he is dead, and being kept for investigation into kidnapping. can they see him? scully is like yeah sure but mulder says no!!! but you CAN talk to the other AWOL guy we brought in. GASP!! a bluff!!! and it works!! from this they learn there is another missing guy!

LMAOOOO except it doesn’t go as smoothly as intended, and mulder is all “hmm he was here a few minutes ago… guess he’s still AWOL… anyway wanna see the body?” I’M CRYING THIS MANNNN IS SO RIDICULOUS 

but bad news: the body is gone. 

cameraman UFO guy is sitting on his floor watching the autopsy tape. when in bursts… the men in black from the earlier garage scene!!!! they knock him out. 

he claims mulder slapped him back to reality. and that he ALSO threatened him... me when i lie.

so mulder doesn’t have the tape. but when he drives home a fully naked man is walking about in the woods. it’s the other missing lieutenant, jack!! he is repeating “this is not happening” in the same voice as the alien as before!!!!! HUH WHAT IS GOING ON?

mulder takes jack to eat. he claims to have piloted the "UFO", and that all the abductions are military stuff, and at the base the abductees are messed with mentally, until they come out convinced they were probed by aliens. 

well okay, if its all the government, than what abducted YOU, jack? he isn’t sure about anything at all anymore, even if he exists. until who walks in... but the military!!

wait, mulder points out, it can’t all be fake- who was the third alien? jack seems to know him by name- lord kinbote. HUH?

and mr. chung heard a story about that same night from the cook at the restaurant! apparently mulder ordered sweet potato pie? huh, that’s interesting. and he kept ordering more and more pies with each question he asked the chef. LMAOOOO I just KNOW that scene was hard to film!!!! scenes where people eat always make me wonder how many times they had to have that damn bite of pie. 

but he claims there was no jack, nor any air force personnel at all. just a hungry mulder. again, so what is the truth...

mr. chung points out that scully doesn’t seem too phased to learn about all the contradictions in this story, and she says well no, not after what happened next. because when he got back to the motel, the men in black were in her room, going through her stuff! they claim she went to get some ice. he’s got 'em at gunpoint, screaming WHERE IS SHE!!! all protective, okay i see you. but she really did go to get some ice???

okay… man in black says that some alien encounters are engineered by the government and then exposed to discredit truth seekers. and mulder counters, well, people say the men in black also do purposefully strange things, so that anyone describing them sounds crazy! they proceed to… try and hypnotize him?

BUT IT’S ALEX TREBEK WHO IS DOING THE HYPNOTIZING???? LMAOOOOO HAS HE BEEN THE QUIET MAN IN BLACK THIS WHOLE TIME??

mr. chung is GAGGED, and wants to know if it WAS alex trebek, but sadly scully cannot confirm, for has no memory of this!! 

she woke up the next morning to mulder in her room….? and mr. chung is also gagged to hear this. me too tbh like did he just sleep on the couch? well we know that is how he sleeps at home so i guess i'm not shocked.

mulder’s trying to explain that she didn’t just "let him in" last night, but detective manners calls and says they found a bleeping UFO.

and what is it but…. a plane!! a secret plane!! and who are they carrying away on stretcher but the missing airmen, jack and robert???? SO HOW DID THEY DIE!

mr. chung puts his pen down, baffled, and scully points out that this story may not have a lot of closure, but it’s more than some of their other cases, which is funny because it is true. and she’s playing with her earrings and it’s so cute.

cutscene to mr. chung typing at his place. until a shadow approaches and he holds a tiny gun!!!! he is ready for a showdown but it’s… mulder at the door?

WAIT how does chung recognize him… did scully show him pictures i'm crying

mulder is in chung's apartment, asking him to not write the book, because it will do a disservice to a field that has always struggled to maintain credibility. we can’t understand these alternate realities yet!!! well. compelling argument... but mr. chung needs a paycheck. 

OH! and mulder suspects that the book is a “covert agenda” of the military industrial complex. always theories upon theories with this guy...

mr. chung says the book WILL be written, but he needs an explanation from mulder: what really happened to those kids on that night?

his answer: how the hell should i know?

(it was so perfect, i thought the episode would end right here)

mr. chung says he has deadlines, and mulder looks very sad, very previously neglected shelter dog rizz, and walks out. back to mr. chung’s furious typing. 

okay, so the cameraman now works for the electrical company roky worked for. because roky moved to california, preaching on purification and the inner earth and core enlightenment. right right right makes sense.

cutscene to scully reading the finished book by mr. chung!!! she is fictionalized as “diane” who is “noble of spirit and pure of heart” but “nevertheless a federal employee” LMAOOOO

and mulder is “renard muldrake” LMAOOOOO that is such a funny name... he's watching something in bed shirtless as his fictionalized self is being described- “a ticking time bomb of insanity” AND HE’S WATCHING THE BIGFOOT TAPES BAHAHAHAHA

chrissy now is an environmental advocate and harold still loves her but it isn’t required. aww harold :(

mr. chung ends by saying that we are not alone in this universe, but in our own way, we are all alone.

NEW BEST EPISODE CONTENDER???

this feels like one of those posts where people make up a bunch of information and then it all gets proven wrong so it is described as a "net zero information gain" bahaha

but don't get me wrong, i don't fully understand what happened, but i loved it. i was laughing, i was enjoying seeing the subjectivity of one story to the next, i was enjoying scully and chung time, and despite all the silly, we still got clues on the whole "is it aliens or the government" thing. and sure, maybe it doesn't make immediate sense, but you have to ponder these matters to learn what is at their heart!

so what DID we learn? well, some alien cases might be the government! but i guess that is still a "might", so maybe we can't truthfully say we LEARNED it. we learned that scully is a big fan of mr. chung!!! we learned that mulder is fiercely protective of his line of work from all his years of being ridiculed! and that he watches the famous bigfoot tape for fun and also maybe like sweet potato pie? it was unconfirmed.

i really enjoyed the playing with perspective, seeing how one character saw things, and then another. and seeing mulder and scully threaten that dweeb was so funny because it was so out of character and had to be silly to shoot.

and i thought it was impressive how it managed to tie back to the big alien and government mystery while still making me laugh so hard. how many past episodes can be analyzed through the lens of certain things being faked for exposure? and what REALLY happened to those airmen? we still don't know if mulder's convo with jack even happened! and we never will!

i came to appreciate the company of mr. chung immensely, even though i thought he was gonna be creepy after calling scully beautiful and touching her arm, but i suppose that he was just a genuinely sweet fellow. you can't blame me for being suspicious after some of the things she gets put through, but i'm sure that if i picked one of his books off the shelf, i, like scully, would be a fan.

overall, i am deeply pleased, and would love to give this a rewatch sometime when i am not taking notes so i could appreciate the pacing in more detail. man, season 3 has really been killing it, huh? and i'm nearing the end!!

[twisted-wonderland-but-gayer]

Here we go: a selkie reader making a deal with Azul and using his seal coat as collateral. Bonus if Azul has to do research on selkies once homeboy leaves.

Azul: "Jade I need you to run to the library and get everything you can find on Selkies!"

Have full creative freedom! (I just love selkies and it makes me sad when people try to ignore the whole coat gimmick that's super important to them!) NSFW or SFW go nuts!

Yuu is Killed

Yuu has hair mentioned and is a selkie. They’re a ray of dumb sunshine like Kalim to make this hurt more The first year squad are all homies before ch 3

“You won't get away with this Azul! I swear to the seven!” Ace snarls at Azul as he is forcibly escorted out of the headmage's office by Deuce who is shaking in silent rage. “Watch yer back!” Epel shouts, face red and flustered as Crowley forcefully pushes him out of the room followed by an enraged Sebek.

“Curse you Azul! It's all your fault!” The fae shouts as he's escorted out by Jack, cradling a crying Ortho, in shock over the news. Jack shot the trio a wordless glare as he rushed out with Ortho in one arm and Sebek's hand in his own as the man shakes in pure hatred. Azul shook as well, but this time, in fear and grief.

“Azul. You are very lucky that that student had no home or family to speak of. Because of this, and also because it has nothing to do with the blackmail you have on me, I will allow all three of you to continue your education here. Under one condition.” Crowley paused, for once in his life being serious. “ You get rid of the anemones once and for all. That is what started this.” 

“Y-yes, sensei… I understand…” Azul trailed off in a daze. Nothing felt real at all. He… He didn’t mean it! He truly didn’t! Yuu had to be alive! he couldn't imagine it any other way! H-he was just talking to them yesterday! They couldn’t be dead! His little ‘gang’ was just that: A few young adults causing some mischief! Nothing more! It wasn’t ever supposed to go as far as it did. Never as far as this! 

The tear-stained and solemn look on the usually cheerful Floyd’s face cemented reality. Jade’s genuine frown and glossy eyes showed that even he was shaken up. Yuu was dead. And it was all. Their. Fault. Crowley dismissed them hastily, and the group took their leave.

Azul was going to rip up every single one of the contracts to get rid of the guilt as he mulls over what happened. He remembers their conversation just the other day as well. Such a bright, young student. Gone.

***

“Ah, evening there Yuu…”

“Hmm?” The prefect tilted their head as they turned around to face the trio where they stood in the hallway. Floyd to the left and Jade to right with Azul standing in the center. An obvious attempt at intimidation that went over the ‘magicless’ students head as they brush down the oversized fur coat they wear. 

“Oh, it’s you three!” Yuu says cheerfully, pulling out a thermos from their bag, before turning their full attention to Azul. And yet, at the time he only smirked at them, seeing them as nothing more than easy prey. What a fool he was to not recognize the gem of a person that stood in front of him. Jade and Floyd stole a few glances at each other.

“As you are aware, finals are tomorrow.” Yuu nodded. “Yup I’m quite nervous since I’m not from this realm, but I’m sure I’ll be fine. Oh! And you all as well!” Oh, what a bright smile they had…

“What if I can guarantee you a good score, Yuu? In fact—“ “Oh sorry! I can't study with you guys.” Floyd snorted. “Huh?” Yuu frowned slightly. “I'm much too busy with my study session with Deuce, and then there’s Grim, so yeah, sorry.” How hardworking they were…

Azul was taken aback for a moment before clearing his throat before the other two could interject. “No you misunderstand, I was going to make a deal with you and offer you a study guide.” “For the test?” Yuu asked just to be interrupted by Floyd with a ‘duh.’

Yuu just chuckles. “Seems the rumors are true. You’re a hard worker Azul.” Azuls expression turned to disbelief before he preened himself, “That I am.” “However, I am afraid I cannot accept this study guide. You have put a lot of work into it, I cannot imagine using it without having earned it. ‘Sides I do better studying on my own.” Yuu put their hands in their large, oversized coat pockets, messy hair adding to their charm of them. If it was real fur, Azul notes, it must have been really expensive.

“No, no, you will pay me back in time-“ “Sorry Azul, I don't have much money since this world has different currency.” Jade and Floyd were now snickering at Azul’s failed attempts to hook this student into a contract. “Plus I would forget to go over it. Anyways…” Yuu said, shaking their thermos in their hand before pulling something out from their bag., “Want some hot cocoa? I would have offered coffee, but the juniors were just lining up for it since it's the night before exams, I guess they’re gonna cram tonight.”

“Oh! Oh!” I want some!” Floyd shouted. “You’re… giving out hot cocoa?” Jade asked, amusedly. Yuu just nodded. “Made some cocoa and some coffee for my class but still have a lot of cocoa leftover. Want a cup?” “Sure.” Jade replied. “And you Azul?” 

Azul crossed his arms, “No thank you.” Yuu nodded and pulled out a few containers, looking closely, Azul can see that the cups were made of plants— leaves to be specfic. As Yuu poured out some cocoa into the strange containers, Azul interrogated them. “You’re giving out free drinks?” “Of course?” “Youre not charging for it all?” “Nope!” Yuus sincere smile made him sick, “I know not everyone can afford it and I made a lot anyways, so I'm giving it away.”

Yuu handed over the first cup to Floyd who squealed before taking a sip. “Those cups…” “I made them out of a type of non-toxic leaf that doesn't affect the flavor at all!” Yuu poured another glass for Jade who nodded and took it from them politely.”I’m so used to seeing plastic on the ocean floor, I was sick of it, so I made a few biodegradable alternatives… The ocean is my love after all, it hurts to see it polluted.” They frown.

Before Azul could even ask, Yuu cut him off for the final time that night. “In any case, get some rest tonight you three. Your mind needs to rest if you want to do your best, after all! Especially you Azul.” “Me?” Azul asked, as Yuu leaned in close to his face. “Yup! You work too hard sometimes, you know? We all see it…” 

They tucked a strand of hair behind his ear before letting go.“anyways… Bye guys!” Yuu waved, walking off into the hallway, leaving Azul confused as ever…

***

Then came the day. The day before it all went to shit. The last day he would see Yuus bright face. A bright, hopeful face so full of love and knowledge. A true sweetheart much like Kalim. 

As expected of Azul’s plan, Crowley sent Yuu after him with his most recent exploits. Now it was up to Yuu to stop his plan, unaware how they fell right into his trap. A simple deal was all it was supposed to be, Yet Yuu was determined as ever to barter. Azul always admired their fiery attitude.

“I agree to your terms on one condition!” He smirked so cruelly at them, who didn't deserve it. “Oh?” “I will give you my pelt instead, and you are only allowed to take my dorm after three days if I fail! Got it?” “And remind me, why would I want your pelt?” Yuu just tilted their head at him.

“Because it has all my magic in it…” Yuu stated. “I am a selkie. Our power is in our pelts! Without it, well, it's just important to us.” Yuu trailed off, taking off their fluffy coat, shaking the whole way, yet brave as ever they held it out to him. “Do we have a deal?” They ask.

***

Selkie pelts… selkie pelts… It only took a few quick searches on his phone to understand the significance of them. Without their pelt, a selkie is never allowed in the sea again. Oh this was rich. Utterly perfect. 

They would not be able to even go anywhere near the ocean to fill out their part of the deal! Azul wore a wicked smirk as he gave the order to the twins. He was winning this contract easily.

 “Jade, Floyd? Go keep an eye on Yuu. You know the drill…”

The two eels gave a slimy smile. “Yes boss…”

***

Azul was none the wiser of what was happening underwater. As far as he was concerned, it was an easy win. He wasn't aware of the fight Yuu had to put up the second they stepped into the coral sea. As they waded through the ocean depths with their friends. 

The sea was suffocating even with the potion, as the waves and riptides tried to tear Yuu to shreds for even entering the water they were now exiled from without their pelt. All they had to do was to hang on a bit longer… Push a little harder. WIth their friends by their side that would be no problem. Jack and Ace helped to support the, as Deuce made sure their breathing was normal.

All they had to do was hang in a little longer and grab that photo. From there all will be well and they can head back and get their pelt again! It was going well until a certain pair of eels came around.

With a blast of magic, the eels stopped the group where they stood, with the only way to continue being to fight. They ruined everything. As the battle dragged out, the ocean’s water became even more suffocating to Yuu as they fought to even stand without keeling over in pain, the water practically crushing them.

With a final blow from the wand, Floyd sent out a weak water spell… that ricocheted off of Jacks spell and aimed directly at Yuu. At most all the spell could do was knock them out, however Yuu was a selkie in forbidden territory. Water was deadly to them. The instant the spell made contact with their skin, they crumpled. 

For a minute they held their throat in pain, crying out. Air bubbles escaped their throat. Were they drowning? “Yuu!” Ace shrieked rushing to them, battle forgotten. The eels tensed up before diving down to check on Yuu. Despite their fight, they didn't want to truly hurt anyone.

Yuu’s tears merged with the ocean around them. As Jade went to grab them to take them up to the surface it was too late. The second Jade went to touch Yuu they dissolved right in his hands. All that remained was sea foam.

Yuu was gone. Forever. And it would haunt the trio for the rest of their lives. They killed someone. A genuine and kind someone. Someone who made the world a better place, now snuffed out, forever. And they would have to live with the guilt and the looks of absolute hatred from Jack and the rest of their friends, forever.

As seafoam washed against the island shore. They hoped that could see Yuu once more.

[thryth-gaming]

Daggerheart - What I've Seen So Far

Template-Based Character Builds

This will be familiar to players of D&D, Pathfinder 2e, Monster of the Week and similar systems where you choose from one of several existing classes, playbooks, ancestries, backgrounds, and the like.

The selection of templates here come in three categories:

Classes

Ancestries

Communities

Classes

Classes are built along lines familiar to D&D players with the following options.

Bard

Druid

Guardian

Ranger

Rogue

Seraph

Sorcerer

Warrior

Wizard

Most of these are what they appear to be, with Fighter and Barbarian bundled together across Guardian and Warrior, with one being more tanky and the other being more damage oriented. Cleric and Paladin are represented together by Seraph.

Each of these classes has subclasses similar to D&D with each currently having two options. These subclasses start with a "Foundation" ability, moving to "Specialization" and then "Mastery". I'm curious at this moment whether in the future each subclass will have multiple Specialization and Mastery options but currently there's only one to each subclass.

Each class also has two "Domains" which determine the selection of other skills they can draw from. This has similarities to both City of Mist's themebooks, with the exception that the Domains are hardlocked to each class, and Pathfinder's Class feats, with the exception that each class is going to overlap their abilities with other classes.

For example, Warrior and Ranger each have access to the "Bone" Domain abilities while Druid and Sorcerer all have the "Arcana" Domain.

Initially, a character will have two of these abilities but they will get more as they level up, with the ability to have at most five active at any given time, with a cost to switch abilities out if you suddenly decide you need X instead of Y.

This smacks a bit of Vancian casting, spell-slots and the like, however there are two closer mechanics, one of these also from Darrington Press. In Candela Obscura you have a list of items which you can declare you have at any point, but only up to three-items. Then there's Scion 2e, where you can buy as many Knacks as you want, but you can only have a number active equal to your ranks in associated Callings.

Ancestries and Communities

These represent the character's genetic heritage, what D&D currently refers to as Races. These have a basic ability like a Daemon's "Dread Visage" helping them to intimidate others. At current moment, there doesn't appear to be a list of future abilities connected to Ancestry similar to Pathfinder's Ancestry Feats.

Similarly, Communities are similar to Backgrounds in both D&D and Pathfinder and come with a similar power to those found in Ancestries. Again, there doesn't seem to be a sign of other powers based on Community as you level up. But this is no different from Pathfinder or D&D.

Analysis

It's familiar enough to D&D and Pathfinder that a lot of people are going to be comfortable with it. The use of cards feels a bit like a gimmick, but I imagine it will make parsing through abilities a bit easier for a lot of people since you can cut down to just your abilities rather than look through the entire book. Assuming more abilities get put out as the game moves on, this is essentially not too different from D&D/Pathfinder Feats or Scion Knacks.

From a design perspective it's also a good move since new classes will only require building the basic class features and subclass features and the majority of the abilities will come from the same pool.

All in all, it's easy for D&D players to pick up and appealing enough to those of us whose home games are more of the narrative variety.

Health and Defense System

The Health System is probably the most innovative part of this game.

First, the parts of the system that are elements I've seen before:

Separate Evasion and Resilience is a thing that has been around for ages. Champions/Hero System has done it since the early 80s and it also shows up in Storyteller, Storypath, Cypher system, Mutants and Masterminds, and so on.

The combination of Stress and Wounds is also something I've seen before. Notably in City of Mist and Fate.

Armor as a resource that gets expended also is something I've seen in The Fellowship, Scion 2e, and several other such things.

Capped damage... and this is initially the one that stood out to me as the that's cool... appears in Scion 2e where the most you can deal with any attack is 2 Wounds... in a game where one Wound is enough to take out most enemies.

Low Health totals are a common build design for PbtA games, Fate, Scion 2e, World of Darkness, City of Mist, and several other games.

It's the Damage Thresholds added in here that makes this most interesting thing and where it avoids the pitfalls that affect some of these other systems (note that Fate, MotW, Scion 2e, and City of Mist are the systems I consider my "home games" so yes, I'm pointing out their pitfalls.

The Damage Thresholds allow for the fun of rolling huge numbers and building significant differences between squishies and crunchies without making balance too difficult.

Capping the damage at 3 where all players have 6 HP at base means that you're never going to have a player be one-shot. It shares this feature with Scion 2e. Though Scion 2e has the options to spend extra success on other things beside damage, so allowing for a more scenery chewing, cinematic, superheroic style of fight (the developers of the game point to the fight between Kratos and The Stranger/Baldur at the start of God of War as what they wanted for Demigod tier combat).

However, the Damage Thresholds and rolling damage are likely to be more intuitive to players only familiar with D&D.

PbtA matches low Harm/HP counts with static damage: a knife will always deal 1 Harm, for example. Similar to Scion 2e, this prevents characters from being taken out in one blow ... you know, unless the static damage is something like 6 or 8... which feels like a bad choice on behalf of the GM. But not rolling damage can be a little jarring the first couple of times you encounter it.

Those are minor issues. Scion 2e, City of Mist, Monster of the Week, and Fate were all built in a world where the big risks were already apparent and demonstrated. The differences between them and Daggerheart is significant, but which you prefer is largely going to be a matter of preference.

Hero System and old Storyteller system is where the danger of separating evasion and resilience. Hero System tanks become incredibly difficult to damage even when you do hit them because their resistances cancel out all the damage. Building attacks to get around that tends to be expensive. Likewise, high Speed or Defense characters can be just impossible to even touch... though you can counter that with area effect attacks.

In a lot of Storyteller (World of Darkness, Scion 1e, etc) systems Dexterity got marked as a "God Stat" usable for both attack and defense and where their armor mechanics were far less reliable.

Daggerheart gets around both those major balance issues. It does have the potential for some psychological downside in that rolling especially high damage rolls may feel like you're wasting effect. However, it looks like part of how they do multiple attacks or area of effect is let you roll damage and split it up between multiple attacks as you desire. So if you did a massive amount of damage, you can apply the bulk of the effect on a main enemy and scatter the remaining damage to several of the minions around them.

As far as resisting goes... a Warrior is going to be a lot harder to damage once you hit them than a Rogue, but they will still have to deal with being slowly nickel and dimed down. High Evasion characters will avoid most attacks, without the risk being pasted by a single strike.

This reduces the scenario design burden on the GM since they don't have to worry as much about overwhelming the tanks or flattening the dodgers (or casters) in a single roll.

Death Move, not Taken Out

One side note is that Daggerheart does not use a Taken Out mechanic. When your HP go to 0 you have three options:

Go out in a blaze of glory.

Risk a scar and resist death, scars are more likely the higher level you get.

Risk it all and roll hoping your Hope die is higher than your Fear die at the risk of dying flat out.

This is in comparison to Scion 2e and Fate where getting Taken Out mostly just means that you are out of the scene and death is a matter of choice and negotiation between player and GM. This presents the players from being blindsided by death and getting drama out of defeat such as being captured or separated from the group. Or... they can let their character die if they feel it is narrative enough.

Daggerheart similarly has ways to avoid death blindsiding the group and derailing campaign progress with the need to introduce a new character and the loss of story arcs that had been built up. But death still remains a risk, similar to City of Mist or Monster of the Week. (Though Monster of the Week has a significantly dramatic resurrection mechanic.)

Action Resolution System

The d12+d12 system is a bit interesting. You roll 2d12, each a different color called "duality dice". One of the dice is Hope and one is Fear. If your Hope die is higher than the Fear die, then you gain a Hope (the meta-currency of the game), but if the Fear die is higher, the GM gains a Fear (the GM's version of Hope). If the two dice are equal, that's a critical success.

They list Genesys as a Touchstone, and I can see its DNA here. Genesys uses a number of signature dice and you roll large dice pools of positive dice versus large dice pools of negative dice generating and cancelling out resources. It was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be and, in fact, I found it quite a fun system to play, but it is intimidating to a newcomer. Heck, as implied, I was doubtful of it before I played it.

This is more similar to rolling Fate dice where you roll 4d6 where the sixes are each marked with 2 blank, 2 minus, and 2 plus sides. Add those together and you get a range of effect from -4 to +4. But again, they haven't listed Fate as a direct Touchstone, so I don't think this is deliberate. If it was Hope minus Fear the comparison would be almost exact.

As a note, this d12+d12 method creates a slightly higher chance of getting a critical hit. As seen here in an Anydice comparison, the chance for a critical hit on this method, where the dice roll the same number, has an 8.33% chance of success compared to a 5% chance with rolling a natural 20... and no chance for a critical failure.

The "with Hope" and "with Fear" also allows the GM to describe a success that yet promises coming danger (succeeding with fear) or a failure that yet gives a sign that all is not lost (failing with hope).

As a note, it appears that the GM rolls a d20 instead of d12 + d12. This means that they have a narrower and more swingy success rate compared to the far more consistent and reliable PCs. PCs are going to find their results cluster around a die roll of 13, making bonuses more impactful. This is a benefit of game systems that don't use a flat curve (single die).

The choice to make rolling pairs the critical hit result neatly avoids the downside of crisis resolution methods that avoid flat curves where critical hits are either very rare or else come about as a result of a player just spending tons of resources at once to turn a good roll into an amazing on as happens in Fate (granted, I love that a lot of the success and failure of Fate is hinged more on the player choice to spend resources than on random chance, but there is something to be said for the natural 20 moment).

Speaking of Fate and spending resources, this is the point where I point out that Daggerheart is a Fortune-at-the-End system. To explain this:

Fortune-at-the-End: Barring a few special abilities, the die roll is the last step of an action resolution. Spending resources comes before you roll. D&D is Fortune-at-the-End

Fortune-in-the-Middle: Rolling the die is a middle step and the player can choose to spend resources after the die is rolled. Fate is Fortune-in-the-Middle.

Fortune-at-the-Beginning: Rolling a die would come at the start of the action, generating resources which the player then spends to accomplish things. 7th Sea is Fortune-at-the-Beginning as in it you roll dice at the start of a scene to generate "Raises" which are then spent as the scene moves forward.

A good way to describe it is as follows:

In Fortune-at-the-End when you are jumping a chasm, you gather yourself up and rush forward and then leap. The die roll happens once you are in the middle of the air and unable to do anything to alter the results.

In Fortune-in-the-Middle, you move forward taking some preparations, but die roll happens at the last possible moment you have to abort the choice. The die roll then basically determines just how much success is going to cost you. Do you abort and stay on this side? Or do you risk a minor injury to hit the other side? Will you need those resources later?

In Fortune-at-the-Beginning, the die roll happens before you decide to jump and you check to see if your roll gave you enough resources to make the jump... and then judge whether making the jump would leave you vulnerable to consequences.

I tend to favor Fortune-in-the-Middle game play and have even tended to treat D&D 5e with Inspiration (when I remember it) as a Fortune-in-the-Middle situation. I also allow players to take the Help Out move in Monster of the Week in response to other players rolling poorly.

There's a psychological element to knowing that your failure comes because you chose not to use the resources to succeed and there's a question as to whether or not you made the right decision. Especially if you choose to spend and later find you lack the resources you need to follow through to completing the overall objective. To me, random chance deciding failure can feel just frustrating... but with this, it's my choice that caused the fail.

However, I'm not inherently opposed to Fortune-at-the-End.

Narrative Initiative

Daggerheart uses a Narrative Initiative style, this means that there is not a set turn order as you would see in D&D. Rather, the characters take actions as the players at the table, including the GM, feel that it makes sense for actions to occur.

Some versions of Fate use this method, but by and large the most common style of gaming that does this are Powered by the Apocalypse games and their descendants: Forged in the Dark or... it doesn't really have a generalization since only Son of Oak is designing with City of Mist's system... but lets call it "Made in the Mist".

Scion 2e uses initiative where there are Hero turns and Enemy turns, but the Heroes all choose who goes in which turn, so in one round, the players can decide the child of Kali takes the lead while the child of Loki sets up and then reverse that order next time where the child of Loki takes advantage of the set up to give the child of Kali an opening for a big hit.

This is probably where most players are going to have the most confusion about "whose turn it is". I've already seen second hand people responding to statements of "if there's no turns then it's not a game." But again, I point at the fact that there are numerous games that now play exactly this way.

Meta-Currency

There are several Metacurrencies in gaming. In fact, when you come down to it, most RPGs run on meta-currencies including D&D with it's spell-slots, hit points, and action economy, but mostly when a gamer refers to "meta-currency" they are going to be talking about points which are used to modify rolls or trigger effects.

Fate Points might be the ur-example of this type of meta-currency, but there might be something older. Fate points are used to activate Aspects either to make a task easier or harder. Both players and GM get Fate points to do this, and they can also use Fate points to add narrative elements.

Scion 2e basically does this but names the player meta-currency "Momentum" and the GM currency "Tension". 7th Sea has "Hero Points" and "Danger Points". Fabula Ultima has "Fabula Points" and "Ultima Points". But where they name Genesys, I'm suspecting they are coming at this from there and the original version of Genesys: Star Wars FFG with it's "Light Side" and "Dark Side" points.

One of the key things that make Meta-Currency work well or poorly is in managing the economy of the points.

Fate Point economy is largely controlled by the GM and players and it can be difficult to manage. Fate Points refresh at the start of each session but are also gained by suffering inconveniences based on your Aspects. However, Fate Points are so central to the game and most Fate advice points out that the game's success hinges on making sure to keep Fate points flowing into the characters as well as making it clear to the players that when they play up the downsides then they generate resources.

In Scion 2e, Momentum is gained when the PCs roll poorly or suffer consequences from their injuries or other conditions and Tension is generated when the PCs accomplish some success, keeping a good ebb and flow between the heroes and the villains.

7th Sea, Fabula Ultima, and Genesys also all have very clearly defined ways that the meta-currency is generated.

The only meta-currency strict D&D 5e only players probably have encountered is Inspiration which is basically a Fate Points poor cousin. It feels largely tacked on and the method of gaining is so poorly sign-posted that it was almost a decade of playing the game before I learned that you're supposed to get Inspiration when you play up the personality traits from your character's Background.

So, D&D players have experience with a poorly implemented, largely unnecessary to its system, and forgettable metacurrency. This has caused the idea of metacurrency to have a bad reputation with some gamers. So Hope and Fear may be a point that generates doubt and concern from some potential players.

That said, Hope and Fear are generated in very clearly outlined methods and they are both very central to the game so that they are not easily forgotten the way Inspiration is.

Overall

Daggerheart draws from a lot of sources in terms of mechanics, but it so far blends things together quite well and most of the mechanics are fairly well-trodden ground, often with at least a decade of prior history.

I've seen games that cobble together mechanics from multiple sources rather shoddily... the 1st edition of Numenera comes to mind. This beta is much better condition that that game was finished.

It looks like a good half-step between games like D&D and narrative games. Probably hitting in the same general region as three of my home games (Scion 2e, MotW, and City of Mist) but just closer to D&D than Fate (my fourth home game).

[msunitedstatesjames]

A few years ago, I played through the Dragon Age games. Now I'm playing through Mass Effect, and I find it kind of hilarious that in both DA2 and ME2 Bioware was like, "Okay, these games are pretty combat heavy, so we've got to figure out who the protagonists are going to be fighting the whole game." And in both games, they were like, "How about various gangs, each with a gimmick, whose members will ceaselessly throw themselves into the deadly path of the protagonist?"

I've written about this before for DA2, but it's just as funny in ME2.

You've gotta imagine the conversations happening in the mercenary gang headquarters throughout the events of this game. The leaders have gotta be like, "Okay, why are our members dropping like flies all of the sudden?" And then they get a little intel and they're like, "Oh."

So they gather their crews around and they're like, "So guys, we just want to let you know to keep an eye out on any jobs coming up because we've been taking some hits."

And the crew members are like, "Okay, who are we looking out for?"

And the leaders go, "Well, first of all, Commander Shepard. You know that human who saved the Citadel from the Geth and that rogue Spectre a couple of years ago?"

And one of the dudes is like, "I heard it was actually a Reaper she defeated."

And the rest of the crew laugh at that crazy conspiracy theory and are like, "One human? Big deal."

And the leaders are like, "Well...not exactly. She tends to run with a crew."

And then the leaders have to tell them about Shepard's crew, consisting of:

Some human lady who always wears a hood (Kasumi is actually good at her job, so I assume they wouldn't have reliable intel on her)

A Quarian tech expert

A former Alliance marine who survived Eden Prime and the attack of the Citadel

A lady who's pretty much a clone designed to be physically and mentally perfect

A Salarian who helped redesign the genophage and was also a member of the Special Forces

The galaxy's top bounty hunter and also co-founder of the Blue Suns

Some Drell dude who may or may not be the most successful assassin in the galaxy

A biotic prodigy who has broken out of more than one high security containment facility

Weirdly, another clone designed to be physically and mentally perfect, but this time they're a Krogan

An Asari Justicar (or her even more murderous progeny)

A Geth who can talk, apparently

And a Turian who looks like, sounds like, and shoots exactly like that guy Archangel, who took out large swaths of merc crews almost singlehandedly before mysteriously disappearing (or dying?) on Omega

And at first the crew isn't that impressed. They're like, "Sounds like a bunch of weaklings to me." And then somewhere around Zaeed they start to be like, "Okay, we'll keep a lookout." And then somewhere around like Samara they start to be like, "Well, shit." And then they get to Garrus and they're like, "Please don't let it be that asshole again."

And the merc Commanders are like, "Good luck to you guys. Make sure to wear a helmet or you might be getting your head crushed through some mixture of pure biotic force, a Krogan bodyslam, and/or a headshot from the guy who's definitely not Archangel!"

And then after the guys leave the Commander thinks to himself, "I'm glad I made it up through the ranks before all this bullshit."

[sp-ud]

Miscellaneous Theoretical Splatoon 4 Thoughts

-

It's got to be on the Switch 2 at this point, we know the Switch 2 is in the works, we know Splatoon is a popular series, it'd be silly to not have a Splatoon game on the Switch 2.

-

REALISTICALLY I think they'll probably go back to Splatfests being 2 teams, especially because it really felt like they were constantly struggling to find 3 similar things to pit against each other. I can only imagine finding 4 things to pit against each other would be even harder

It would be cool if it was 4 teams and also was done in like, somehow a tournament style but I feel like that would be incredibly hard to pull off not even just from a "finding 4 things to pit against each other" standpoint but from a "okay how tf would we organize this" way, plus we already saw with Tricolor they had to undo part of the originally planned gimmick because in actual practice it wasn't balanced properly.

-

I'd definitely like to see humanoid male idols, maybe they could do a group of 4 with 2 guys and 2 girls. Or all guys but I think it'd be interesting to do half and half.

And maybe they could do like, a guy and girl octo/inkling, then a guy and girl of some other species. Honestly I just want to see more other species actually modeled in game and not just drawn most of the time. (I'm still kinda sad we never got to see the rest of Damp Socks in game at any point)

-

Obviously Splatoon 3 was explicitly said to be the end of the Squidbeak Splatoon storyline, so I haven't the faintest idea where they'd take the Splatoon 4 story mode aside from I feel like it'd definitely involve Salmonids? Except I also feel like they wouldn't want to make a story mode that would in a sense "get rid" if Salmon Run as lots of people like that alternate type of gameplay.

I also feel like Side Order was definitely lowkey them testing the waters for another style of gameplay that could possibly be used in Splatoon 4, but I doubt they'd make the main story mode Enitrely a full on rogue-like because it is a style of gameplay thats very hit or miss with lots of people.

-

Anyways I'll probably come back to this post to add more later, and also feel free to add your own theories/thoughts/wishes about Splatoon 4! I love to hear others ideas

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice: Beast IV L

if anything's getting my icon blurred out, it's this one. anyways!

it's that time of the month once again, and this time I feel like an absolute beast. well, to be more accurate, y'all felt like getting an absolute beast. a beast (fgo definition) that summons beasts (D&D definition). I'm sure this won't be confusing at all.

as usual I highly doubt this build is even remotely balanced for actual PvE play, but beasts are supposed to be world ending threats, so that shouldn't be a surprise.

the build itself will be under the cut, because hoo boy there's a lot to go over.

first up, beast IV can show up in her standard Koyanskaya form, which is the one primarily used when outside her lair. this is effectively a suped-up version of Koyanskaya of Dark, with access to unlimited weaponry and NFF-brand grenades, all of which work like standard "weapons of <x> slaying" do in D&D- they deal extra damage to humanoids, and can knock humanoids prone.

the big addition here aside from standard high-level-boss resistances is her Add to the Collection ability, where once per day she can try to forcibly plane shift a non-humanoid creature into a demiplane of her creation, basically putting them in suspended animation. this will be important for later.

form two is effectively Koyanskaya's big shadowy fox form. I didn't make any hard and fast rules about how these forms connect to one another, but I would probably say her masked form can turn into this combat form once a day, probably for a couple minutes at a time.

the gimmick for this fight is her Seasonal Cycle, which both reduces the number of legendary actions she gets to actually attack people each round, but also gives her buffs. I tried to keep this close to her lostbelt-based buffs in her final fight, but I also changed the names to be less FGO-centric if you want to use this build in a game. there's not a ton to say about this one that isn't regurgitating the seasonal cycle, it's just Masked Form with a bigger focus on kicking humanoid ass.

The big nipply form shown in the build picture has a lot of text, but I'll do what I can to break it down. This is Beast IV's final form, and it's the one that sets up the Tunguska Sanctuary in the first place, so there's a lot going on. Once again her humanoid-slaying effect grows larger, but she can only take this form in her lair, plus her speed is cranked wayyy down at this point. I just. cannot imagine that thing moving any faster than a crawl. if you need something done fast, that's what your lackeys are for.

speaking of lackeys, let's Reveal the Collection. this is a ten-minute ritual, which upon completion can summon copies of creatures that were stored by the Masked Form. The higher the CR of the creatures being made, the less you can make at a time, and the shorter your range is. there's also a lesser version of this you can do as a legendary action, and it's restricted to one creature at a time, of up to CR 10.

but of course, you need a place to put all those creatures! that's why she's got Regional Effects too! it's a whole lot of text, but it basically boils down to making a life zone and a death zone around her lair. half of your collection will tend towards the life zone, and half towards the other. in the life zone, the area is choked by plants, slowing down all humanoids in the area, and also healing effects targeting non-humanoids are more powerful. the death zone has extreme heat, and humanoids have disadvantage on saves against it. also, all summoned creatures in this region have double their normal perception distance when it comes to perceiving humanoids.

-------------

So overall, this build isn't a world-ending threat like Tiamat, or an orbital laser like Goetia, but she's not supposed to be a full-grown beast yet, so I'd cut her some slack. plus, if your party includes non-humanoid players you can make a dozen clones of them to fight the party which sounds like a really fun time. that being said, I do pity any DM who as to keep track of her seasonal buffs in a fight.

[ratlesshonret]

I ran some numbers just for fun, and came to some interesting conclusions about Limbus Company's story structure and game design. I analyzed what percentage of stages are just story, have story/combat, and are just combat, for Cantos IV, V, and VI.

Canto IV, in general, is regarded as fairly poorly paced, with many stages of just combat against the same generic enemies, while Canto V and VI are regarded as having fixed these issues by adding more story stages and supplementing many would-be just-combat stages with story parts at the start or end of the fight.

But, what are the numbers? To be clear, while I will list dungeons, I will not be factoring them into the final calculations because I already did the calculations without them and I'm too lazy to redo them.

And once I run the numbers, I'll go into a lot of detail about why the story may feel more well-paced, especially in Canto VI.

Doing a check, Canto IV has 54 total stage. -9 Just Story -21 Combat/Story -23 Just Combat -1 Dungeon

Now, let's take a look at Canto V. It has 36 total stages, putting it already at 18 less levels than the last Canto. -12 Just Story -21 Combat/Story -2 Just Combat -1 Dungeon

Finally, let's look at Canto VI, which has 48 stages. -14 Just Story -28 Combat/Story -6 Just Combat

Now, let's run some numbers. In Canto IV: -81% of stages have some combat -42% of stages are just combat -55% of stages have some story -16% of stages are just story If you count story/combat stages as half a stage on each side, then Canto IV has 19.5 story stages, and 33.5 combat stages. This means that you spend about 62% of time in combat, and only 38% of time in the story, assuming that each combat and story section takes the same time to play through.

Now, let's look at Canto V: -63% of stages have some combat -5% of stages have just combat -91% of stages have some story -33% of stages have just story If you count story/combat stages as half a stage on each side, then Canto V has 22.5 story stages, and 12.5 combat stages. This means that you spend 34% of time in combat, and 66% of time in the story. This is literally the exact opposite of the last Canto.

Finally, Canto VI: -70% of stages have some combat -12% of stages have just combat -87% of stages have some story -29% of stages have just story If you count story/combat stages as half a stage on each side, then Canto VI has 28 story stages and 20 combat stages. This means that you spend 41% of time in combat, and 59% of time in the story. More combat than Canto V, but not as much as IV.

For a quick TL;DR, if we assume combat and story take equal playtime to complete: Canto IV - 62% Combat, 38% Story Canto V - 34% Combat, 66% Story Canto VI - 41% Combat, 59% Story

As we can see, Canto IV and V are basically reversals of each other in terms of the combat/story ratio, while Canto VI is somewhat in the middle of them, leaning closer to Canto V's ratio.

However, one big thing to consider with Canto VI is the amount of boss fights. Many stages in Canto VI have long boss battles, and if these were counted as their own kind of stage, I imagine this part of the game would have a very skewed ratio compared to previous parts. If we make some general assumptions that these fights take much longer than the ones in Canto IV, and are more likely to result in retries due to their difficulty, then the combat time in Canto VI may be closer to a flat 50/50, or even a 60/40 in the other direction, which would put it almost even with Canto IV.

So why does Canto VI not feel like a slog to play through compared to Canto IV? Well, you may already know the answer: the fights are more interesting. Fighting a complex boss with gimmicks and flavor is much more fun than just beating up the same robots and EGO-wearing Fixers over and over again. And even if you have to retry the fight a few times, the learning of a bosses abilities and how to approach the fight, alongside details such as unique sprites, animations, and music, leads to a generally more engaging experience.

(CANTO VI SPOILERS BELOW)

Canto VI is also special in how oddly it is balanced. Most of the combat-only stages occur around the start of the final third, while almost half of the just-story stages happen within the first third. It leads off with a lot of story and setup, before throwing you into fight after fight, and eventually, boss after boss.

In my personal opinion, I wasn't the biggest fan of how Canto VI just felt like a boss-rush. But I understand why many people enjoyed this type of gameplay. Especially fans who came over from Ruina, like myself, and who are used to the structure of back-to-back tough and unique battles, rather than the early-Limbus structure that gave dozens of waves of generics to plow through.

But back to the game-design aspect, I think the way Canto VI does setup and payoff is interesting. In Canto V, the story and combat sections are fairly balanced. Each combat stage comes with story, and the few that don't usually place a just-story stage immediately after. Canto VI also does this, but it's a bit different with how many bosses there are.

In Canto VI, it begins with lots of story, as mentioned before. This sort of leads to a feeling of building up to something, the exposition leaves you invested. When you get to the "boss rush" section, you get rewarded with the story payoff whenever you defeat a boss. Once that's done, you get thrown right into another boss, with another payoff. The story starting slow and building means that they can throw you into a cycle of challenge-payoff-challenge-payoff in a way that feels real and rewarding to the player. The tough challenge comes, and you get immediate story payoff that works due to the first third of the story being used to set up many different plot threads and characters.

Once that middle-third "boss rush" is over, you get a bit of a break in the form of the Wild Hunt. The section of stages that's mostly just combat, with fairly little story in it. After a few levels of this, you're back to bosses. This time, however, they usually come accompanied with full story stages after their defeat, which are usually used to set up the scenario for the upcoming boss fight afterwards. It's similar to the boss rush segment, but much less of a rush and more of just a chain.

This section mainly works by making each boss feel more impactful. You already dealt with the boss rush, but now, this chain of bosses coming with full story-levels worth of setup really makes them feel like the important ones. You climbed up the hill of bosses, and received that challenge-payoff cycle several times, and now you're at the part where it's more of a buildup-payoff, where the payoff is the boss fight. And of course, this culminates in the ultimate buildup-payoff, where you get two whole story stages worth of buildup into the final battle against the Erlking and Catherine.

Overall, this story structure is effective because it balances the story and combat in a way where it starts with a slow build, uses that to throw you into a cycle of challenge-payoff, gives you a small break of just combat, before finally giving you larger buildups into the more important bosses.

So even though you may be spending just as much, or even more, time in combat in Canto VI than Canto IV, it feels better because Project Moon balanced the story in such a way where every battle gives you a payoff for completing it, and each fight has been sufficiently built up by the former story segments.

[jitterbugjive]

i'm really loving where bedeviled dotty is heading rn with these recent updates :D i only vaguely remember what the blog used to be like before its reboot, and i dont know how much you had planned for the derpy story back then/if you ever even got particularly far... but harrington's whole deal AND now having tumult making threats to him that he had better play along with dotty, Or Else?? i am absolutely digging it so hard

i can't quite say why but ESPECIALLY that last thing is getting my imagination GOING! tumult has grown so fond of dotty it's a real beauty to see. the kind of fucked up love triangle situation one could make of this... i will be rotating this trio of characters in my mind for a while, you're doing an absolutely stellar job with them

Honestly I'm much happier with this story than Bedeviled Derpy because there's so much more I can do with it, and Bedeviled Derpy didn't really have all that much of a story to it. It would have only ever had 3 characters, restrained to the TARDIS. It was more of a gimmick than anything else.

This time I can play with more characters, entire races, and a whole world and I've been figuring out so much about it that I know I won't end the stories from Leporia after Dotty is done. I am hoping to have some kind of series in the future that contains a bunch of short stories following different characters and different situations in the world. For example I would love to show Princess Magnolia's story.

Recently I just figured out what rabbit cuisine is like based on each race's tastes and preferences, and I figured out a bunch more about foxes that will make this story more interesting. The cuisine won't be relevant to Dotty's story but I might be able to make a lore post about it or include in a future story.

I've been hesitating to make lore posts lately because I want to show things off more in the future series.

I can promise the next time Dotty and Tumult sit down and talk, some very important things are going to come to light about the foxes.

[oskidontle]

Heya just discovered your AU recently and I'm really enjoying it I have some questions though 1. how did this start off? Like how did the hunger start manifesting and what were the very first signs? 2. is Mr boss evil? 3. what do the others think of the fact that pim starves himself of flesh? Do they encourage him to eat Orr? 4. Can they still eat normal food? And if so do they have like a strong adversion to it orr? 5. Who did the hunger take the biggest toll on mentally 6. Are you planning on making some sorta comic or some other to tell your story I'm pretty sure there's a story here but mabye I'm wrong idk 7. How'd you come up with the designs for their hunger forms and the AU in general?

OG AU Post for the confused

1. The very first signs are subtle enough no one notices, not even themselves. The only evidence something is off is animals start to steer clear. Maybe they sense something more instinctual, feral, about their aura? Scent maybe? However it is, animals with their superior senses know something is wrong.

They didn't start noticing anything themselves until they started to see things in the mirror for just slight glimpses. Glimpses of something but they could never make out what.

It's only days from there when the cravings start. But many times someone can crave something and not know what it is they crave until they find it. As you can imagine, because of this, each of their first hunts were unexpected. As such, people can get caught in the crossfire. Important people.

It was unlucky that Pim had to learn what he was craving when he did.

2. Mr. Boss is not evil. But he has a job to do, one that he has been tending to for many years. 18 years to be precise. He hopes to complete his job soon enough.

3. Allan and Glep care but they don't try to stop him. Instead they just check up on him often, bring some drinks, normal food. They don't really know how to approach him in a way they perceive as meaningful.

Charlie despite his desperation for a way to fix all of it still encourages Pim to eat. He reasons with him that there is no point in Pim or any of them starving themselves. After all it always ends the same way, a loss of control and an inevitable rampage. Why loose control and possibly hurt someone you don't want to hurt, when at the very least the hunt let's you know the victim ahead of time.

It's not much of a compensation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Unfortunately it's his own choice at the end of the day.

4. They can eat normal food, in fact they still have to. The Hunger has just added another part to their diet that their body perceives as crucial for survival.

5. That's hard to answer, depends on what you put value on in this toll. In my opinion I'd say it's either Glep or Pim.

6. Maybe, maybe not. If I'm honest I don't know yet. I might make occasional snippets of moments I imagine happening. They wouldn't be in chronological order, just whenever I feel like making them. If I don't make a master post later on then I would leave the chronological order left for any interested to piece together using context clues I leave throughout different posts.

Like I said, this is a big maybe. Ideally I would make a fic but I have never been able to finish a single chapter of a fic in my life. I loose focus too easy.

I have a story to tell but I suppose I haven't decided how I want to tell it

7. If you want me to be truly honest, I didn't think that much. I built lore after designs. I wanted them each to have a sort of gimmick going on while being kinda cohesive simultaneously. I also knew I didn't want to go with a hyper detailed or overly realistic look.

In-universe they probably look terrifying but to you or I, they look just kinda uncanny. A little gross.

After making the initial designs I started to come up with lore and adjusted details accordingly.

As for why I came up with it?

Two words: For fun! :)

[circusgoth-dotcom]

an idea for an official wr.eck it r.alph s/i potentially?? i've never been able to peg down a solid idea until now;

name: minos the (trans*) bull game: farm olympics (ehh still workshopping this title...) game premise: a compilation of sport mini games in which the gimmick is the playable characters and npcs are anthropomorphic farm animals. i imagine the arcade cabinet would be set up similar to "rampage," with three joysticks and sets of buttons so that three people can play at once.

minos' description from the game's official "rules & facts" booklet: specialty: golf power move: "seeing red" - 99% chance of getting a perfect score in any mini game, can only be used once per game class: heavy hitter minos is a strong-headed bull who tries to act like competition doesn't interest him, but when he loses, watch out! as they say, mess with the bull...

other ideas:

the game was installed in litwak's around the same time as f.ix it fe.lix jr. & tur.botim.e, albeit not in close proximity to the two games

minos and tu.rbo/king c.andy are exes- as one can imagine, the relationship was incredibly unhealthy

sgt. calh.oun is the first person since turbo to spark romantic feelings in minos again, though fel.ix is quickly grouped into this as well (i really want to write something about fel.ix discovering minos' crush and them bonding over it, in turn developing their own feelings toward each other)

*i imagine minos' transness isn't "canon" to his game, but future fans discovered he was initially intended to be a cow and ran with the headcanon

minos' game had at least two more installments with updated graphics and gameplay as video games progressed in quality, one of which was called "farm olympics 3D" and was briefly installed in litwak's, leading to a "who are you" "i'm you but better in HD" situation between classic!minos and new!minos

[my-mt-heart]

I have some thoughts on Daryl’s arc that I want to share, but I’ll hold off a day or two because 1) it might get ugly and 2) I think Carol/Melissa deserve the spotlight a lot more right now.

Just seeing her on my screen again is a huge relief after so much uncertainty over the past year and a half, and of course the performance is insanely good. What I'm most grateful for is the fact that Carol has a clear emotional drive. We don't have to analyze her micro expressions for hours or turn over every stone to get a rough idea of her headspace. She says it herself. She's looking for Daryl. She's already gone to great lengths to find him when he doesn't turn up at the time he said he would, and thanks to the teaser, we know she'll keep going as long as there's hope he's still alive. I want to see where her determination takes her (once she gets across the ocean I mean), and obviously I want to watch the inevitable reunion between her and Daryl. It's the most anticipated scene of S2, so it needs to be big. Like, unambiguous canon big. It's what the characters and the fans deserve.

Bear with me though because I do have some issues with Carol's first appearance in 106. “God, MT, can't you just look on the bright side?” I could, but then I’d have to lower my standards, which enables AMC to keep lowering their standards when it comes to telling Daryl's and Carol's story. Theirs has always been an inspiring one, not because of all the people they've saved or all the things they've blown up, but because of the emotional core. They're two lost souls who find each other after the world ends, raising each other up to become stronger than the people around them, the audience, and even they themselves ever imagined. Their story is deep. It offers hope to fans facing their own challenges in life, so it has to be handled with a lot of care. Cheap gimmicks are beneath them, but cheap gimmicks are what we get in this scene.

It's a little bit like S7 when she runs into a group of saviors on the road, taking them out with a gun hidden up her sleeve. It reminds me that this woman is one of the most resourceful badasses in all of TWDU. And as a Caryl shipper, it delights me to see her ride off on Daryl’s bike—also badass for the record. To me though, when the nostalgia/shipper's high wears off, these things feel like distractions. There’s not really a compelling twist, like for example, finding out that Carol stowed away on the boat Daryl was on and had been in France the whole time. There's not enough momentum to keep me hyped through the long hiatus. The teaser does the vast majority of that right now, which is cool, but I want to see that same effort to market the show to me in the show itself. I want good writing. I want the connective tissue. I want the payoff. Will we ever see how Carol learned to ride a motorcycle in the first place or do I have to fill in the blanks myself just like I had to do throughout most of S11? Will we get Caryl beats that outdo the extremely unnecessary and OCC nunbaiting beats?

I don't trust Zabel to deliver everything I'm looking for. I don't think he's very clear on who Carol is, what she represents to the fans, or what her relationship with Daryl represents to the fans. Melissa does understand all of that though, so I have hope her input will make a difference. I've said it many times, and I'll say it again. I'm so happy she's back. I'm happy she seems so excited to be back. She deserves everything she's ever wanted for Carol.

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

Different kind of a killing game

[parts said by others start with their names, also this one is incredibly long and goes into post-game saiou angst]

Hina: Okay so moving from ⁠gore-discussions because this wasn’t exactly gore: Ideas for alternative motives for V3. The one that I’m thinking about very much right now is the idea of a prisoners dilemma type motive The general idea of the prisoners dilemma is: any number of prisoners in a group have an option of giving information to authorities in order to lessen their sentence. If one person gives information, they will be let off with a much shorter sentence, at the consequence of the other prisoners getting a heavier one, but if they all stay quiet, they keep the same regular length sentence. If they all expose each other, they all get the heavier sentence The idea hinges around what humans do in a situation where trust like this is involved. The best outcome for all parties is if everyone stays quiet, but if one person decides to sell them out, they’re at risk of a larger sentence So yeah, that and put it in V3

Oliver: What information would they have that monokuma would want??

Hina: It doesn’t necessarily have to be information It’s mainly the choice of whether to do what the authority figure wants at the cost of selling out the group I’d imagine it like this. Monokuma gives them a period of time to investigate and then tells them theyll be given a vote on who the mastermind is If you correctly vote the mastermind, you get to leave no consequences. If you vote incorrectly, however. The person that you voted for will die and you’re labeled their blackened. If nobody votes, you all get to continue the game without any risks So here’s the dilemma. Even if they all know with 100% certainty who the mastermind is, the mastermind can still vote wrong and kill a person, even if the rest get out And the other option is they have to trust the idea that nobody votes and they all love

Checkers: can they see who votes first?

Hina: No, They don't know who, Unless they're watching each other That's another fun part, Watching their behavior as they vote Cause I'm assuming they're voting at rhe trial podiums So they can all see each other too

[some time was spent talking about which chapter this motive should be introduced in & speculating about what would happen in the suggested scenarios, but that won't be relevant bc of a later decision]

Hina: I just xame to a beautiful discovery This would be the perfect motive for a Mastermind Shuichi AU Like it's right up his alley eith the detective thing

Oliver: IMAGINE IF IT WAS A REPEATING MOTIVE…….. you could actually make a whole death game out of that

Hina: No but did you know that's actually a second part to the prisoners dillema There's a second aspect to the prisoners dillema related to: What would happen the more times the situation was repeated Would they start working together over time realizing it's bad for them Would they use exposing each other as bargaining chips. Like. "If you let me lessen my sentence today I'll let you lessen yours tomorrow"

Oliver: I was thinking if it were a repeating motive, it could practically be the whole gimmick of the killing game. Like imagine two people die from being voted for. One blackened, and one person who gets away scot-free but killed the other person with their vote. The blackened gets caught, because Shuichi, but maybe someone else finds out who the other voter was, and kills them because the other person who died was close to them. Another trial, and then another Prisoner's Dilemma Vote

Hina: You want to know another fun idea If this is a simulation in which Shuichi doesn't care because he knows he's gonna live and is playing observer In a scenario where they've voted out blackened to die They're given the option of thus "If everyone says yes, I'll bring back half the dead participants at random. If any specific people are voted for, they will be brought back and the rest stay dead" So now it's a choice of bringing back the most people, or trying to guarantee that the person you care for most comes vack It's the reverse dilemma And there's probably people you don't want to come back so Do you really want to risk your best friend not coming back, in favor of someone you hate Mastermind can vote someone they don't want back into the ftay Imagine Kokichi gets voted out on pretenses of people suspecting him Nobody wanted to bring him back, so Shuichi used his vote to guarantee he was brought back Now there's dealing with the fact of. Hey, I'm alive again At the cost of someone who goes against mg moral code in every way being the person to do ir

I am imagining them doing the dillema as a bonus after getting the normal trial vote right so right after 4th trial would be good

this also made me think of a killing game on fully different rules, where if they fail to get away as a blackened they're not executed since the only goal is finding the mastermind. they would be doing only the mastermind vote after trials, with the option to skip, but generally, they get two chances to eliminate mastermind per chapter, first by setting up the murder, and then second if the group figured out the murder and get to vote, if somebody gets away with murder, they leave on their own, the group will be allowed to leave if mastermind is eliminated, and that's with keeping in mind that voting for someone means killing them, but they don't have to worry about being executed for getting it wrong, it's just about their morals.

Checkers: what if the mastermind is killed?

the game ends

there should be a hard limit of how many people can be voted out per trial too, so it doesn't end too fast, like "only first three votes will count, so decide quickly" or even less. I think, with the presence of mastermind being known and everyone working against them rules would be way stricter in general, mass murder wasn't allowed to begin with, here it's "you've only got one shot", it only gets reset if everyone still alive has blood on their hands (either by murder or vote) or, my first idea, was it being reset every chapter after vote, aka the killer couldn't vote in the same chapter, but the idea of everybody having blood on their hands come final chapter is spicier,

Checkers: if you vote correctly you leave and if majority votes correctly the mastermind dies?

not in my version, it's enough for one correct vote to kill the mastermind, only the first three who vote register, even if they're all skips, people who voted for someone or killed directly would break a rule and therefore be punished for getting another person killed before it's reset because of a lack of spotless

Checkers: if only the first three register then there might be a lot more panic over voting maybe they rush to vote without thinking as much so. I propose. monokuma changes the voting layout midgame, they were ready to vote and clicked really fast but didn't realize they voted wrong until it was too late

yeah, that panic is what's I was going for, they gotta be locked in and ready to get someone killed the moment voting pulls up Kokichi is a big fan of getting in a "skip" as one of those 3 but not everybody thinks like that the first time, he's just like, "oh, then we can all press skip, nice, easy." and then there's a bang.

they could [reveal who they voted for], but they're not obligated to,

Checkers: I think they would, or others might force them to say it. it prevents a lot of wasted votes/kills

they don't even know if their votes are the ones that registered until the voting is done and acted on, the votes that registered get revealed but without information who put them in, so if somebody voted the same as you just faster you wouldn't know and just think that's probably your vote, some might try to get others to vote the same as them if they're convinced somebody's the mastermind, but if they got other motives for trying to eliminate someone, they'd rather stay quiet,

I think since it's more of a cat & mouse game between mm and others, there would be messages from them included in the rewards they get, one a real hint and one misleading, they just have to decide which is which, those would replace the flashback lights I guess,

mm Shuichi would listen to what others are suggesting to him, making Kaito think that he is relying on him, but actually he's only okay with voting on Kokichi because he's planning to bring him back later, great for the plot, but not mm Shuichi would mostly just skip until he had solid evidence someone is the mastermind

Sini: The thing is, I can see some people not even voting the mastermind here. Like, someone could vote for the killer as revenge or for the safety of the group. Or, someone might vote cause they know they themselves are likely to be voted as the mastermind and they want to take the chance of being the first vote that can take the person who will vote them out as a means of saving their own skin. Like, Himiko could vote Korekiyo off for example. And the last scenario could absolutely fit Kokichi, though the question is, would he actually do that? Given how he is in game, I think he would as it is just one of the sacrifices he'd have to make in order to end the game himself

yes, you get my vision 100% what I meant by "other motives" he could still make Gonta do it, he'd tell him it's to raise their chances, but it'd be actually because he knows he himself would hesitate but also consider: he doesn't make it far enough this time too sus for his own good

Sini: Little guy dies before he can even think to do that or pull it off…

he'd get voted out as soon as the second trial, then mastermind would bring him back after the 4th, the group dynamic would be a lot different, some would probably be more willing to trust him now, knowing he's not the mm, but that too depends on how well he copes with that

somebody voted him out, in fact, most likely multiple people voted for him, and now that he's back… they expect cooperation? he teams up with Shuichi because he's the one that voted him back in, or so he says, can't fully trust that, but hopefully? more than others

I think this one vote would become public because they'd have an argument after seeing Ouma brought back and make each other admit to their votes, there was some suspicion and talking behind backs and asking each other one on one before, but this is the one where it would become a whole ordeal of peer pressure, so the brought back peeps would know who claims them (and why would anyone risk lying about that? they didn't, right? that's the last person who'll want to hurt me, right?)

if saiouma had rights I could say that Shuichi brought him back because he wanted to get to know him better, continued to wonder about the mysterious boy, it would be a second chance for them, but. Mastermind Saihara is the better explanation

I don't know, can they still have something complicated going on post-game if Saihara is the mastermind? What it would take for Kokichi to be conflicted and don't straight up hate him after they leave vr? cause being brought back wouldn't be enough and actually only make the betrayal worse

Sini: I think the only thing that could make Kokichi not fully hate Shuichi is if Shuichi had his personality and memories screwed up Like, he was made to be the mm

I dunno, I don't want it to be that, if he's altered it's a little bit, like, everyone got Enhanced to be Ultimates, but then that means they did sign up, and he volunteered to be the mastermind and he's himself with new cool knowledge and skills, but that's about it. I want Kokichi to be forced to think about his morals, to have to notice good things in Saihara who is the ringleader, made those motives, and unfortunately proven to him that none of them are better than him (remember the counter being reset by the final chapter, that's important, even though that means this one would have more chapters than canon)

he's going to have to think about how Saihara was doing a silly little social experiment knowing it's not real, while the lot of them was killing for real, thinking it'll be permanent, and how Saihara never was the blackened, and kept the game fair with the hints and lead it to the conclusion since his goal never were to keep them trapped in the hell loop, and how he cared & patched him up when he got injured

he wants to believe Saihara was just being manipulative, but it doesn't add up

Sini: I meant more like he was forced to be the mm but I see what you're saying. Maybe Kokichi doesn't hate him as much cause he sees himself to be just as awful as him? Or maybe there are aspects to Shuichi that have him feel bad for him. And yeah! He sees how he was at least fair about everything. But I'm gonna be real, I don't think Kokichi could ever forgive him or even see him in a good light. He might not fully hate him, he could give him some props for certain things, but he is still the one that made everyone do all that horrible shit. Even if it wasn't real, it felt real. It was real to them. It doesn't matter if Shuichi does actually care for him, he still manipulated him and everyone else. He would want to see the good in him, but all the stuff I mentioned could never be enough and what he's done could never just be ignored. Just because Kokichi might see himself in a similar awful light doesn't mean he's going to give Shuichi that much charity. How I see it, it could never work

I love pg Shuichi who's been neglected and clung to the comfort show, so I imagine him going far past interacting enough not to be suspicious, he's thrilled to make friends, loves having a talent and therefore finally being special enough to hold people's attention, have something to connect with them instead of just offputing people with his fannish rambles about executions and from ch5 on to the end he would be the closest to Kokichi, so he would be trying to get that back, he's attached

I am just trying to paint the picture of, memory manipulation is barely still on the table, no flashback lights, no identity changing stuff or big gaps in memory, a lot more defined rules, cards on the table about how things work, the choice being fully theirs: stay or try to leave, I'll even give you a hint. He was mostly an observer in the whole thing

Ves: much harder in on them being his friends than tsumugi is. he's actually MORE like junko in that way, huh

bro's not even giving them motives, he's getting so much blackmail material just from being able to check who voted what and he's not using it, he's just there to hang out with his friends, and maybe study their behaviour under immense stress hahaha

Hina: I like the idea of Mastermind Shuichis game being a character study

Ves: were they friends pregame [my reply] no, he had no friends, this is his idea of an ice-breaker, he's just getting to know them better this is the best way to really get to know who people are at their core, trust him, he learned a lot on the internet

Sini: So they're all the same in that they gave themselves up to DR and while responsible for their own actions, were taken advantage of by Team DR? [my reply] I guess, yeah?

Ves: he made fifteen friendship bracelets in preparation

he thought it's going to be like solving a locked room together, a nice bonding activity, it's basically the same thing if you're as desenitized to death as he was! He was helping through leaving hints! It wouldn't be fun if he made it too easy, but he did a good job adjusting the difficulty level for the group, he's a good game master he gave them a good journey on the way to the victory that was always eventual, he cheered them on

Ves: im gonna cry he's sweet in the worst possible way v3's world rlly fucks up everybody who lives in it huh everyone who 'died' is just backstage with juiceboxes he does not see the problem

Sini: Man, I feel like that would make Kokichi hate him more, if that makes any sense. At least at first, anyway. Cause he's so sad and sweet yet did the most horrible things. He doesn't see anything wrong with what he did.

"I was worried I am going to fumble and get caught early, but I am glad I was able to give everyone a good season despite my anxiousness" gives that small smile

Sini: I feel like when they get mad at him, he cries jwjhhwef He only wanted to have fun : (

Ves: kokichi how could you POSSIBLY be mad at this guy. the murder does not count as a reason

Sini: His heart definitely doesn't hurt when he makes him cry. Definitely not

Ouma lashes out at him (post game, because in game he was in too much shock to bring up personal feelings about how it affects him as an individual, instead of talking about The Whole Thing) and he's like" "but I thought- I thought that we, that you… nevermind" hides the notebook full of ideas for what they might do together now that they're out and runs away, crying

Ves: he deserves it but like that's my son my beloved son who has committed war crimes

He was SO going to ask him out if Kokichi didn't bring him back down to earth

Ves: he's borderline delusional abt all this and when he gets a healthier mindset the self hatred is gonna hit harder than even canon shuuichi

Checkers: he specifically asked the backstage ppl to give Kokichi the nice juicebox brand. That’s rly romantic right

Sini: Knowing this now, I think when Kokichi finally accepts that he made the choice to join danganronpa and that they were all in the worst mindsets when getting into the recent season will he, not forgive Shuichi, but not be so mad at him anymore. He's more angry at DR than anything. He's still uncomfortable around him, his trust issues really keep him still feeling strong about what Shuichi did to him, but he holds no real strong feelings against him. He just feels bad for him

Ves: oh is this official danganronpa? somehow i got the impression that it was a fan project like in a warehouse somewhere

it's official they all audition and get on location, their memory of getting there it's closer to thh, "I came in here, lost consciousness and then suddenly it was Like That" Shuichi didn't do anything illegal, he just hosted a season of a popular tv show and they all got juiceboxes!

Ves: they WANTED to do this fun and normal team building exercise why are they so MAD at him!!! completely unfair i think he'd get really offended if they imply he was like. faking his grief at the deaths. because he DID grieve! his tears were genuine!! just…in a nice, comfortable, cathartic sort of way. he always knew he'd be going home he cried like you cry at a sad tv show the others cried like it was real

Sini: Like that's what really pisses them off. He saw it all as a show when they saw it as reality

the disconnect is more at a level as if they were playing D&D, of course he's invested and he's sad if someone has to leave the game he's going to miss them, but they'll see each other later, it's fine. And, well, he's not happy to see his dear friends fighting or upset, obviously, but those things happen and in the end it'll all be resolved, in the matter of a few weeks at most

Ves: it's just LARPing at the end of the day. them not KNOWING that doesn't count because they asked for it to be that way. he's helping!! he's facilitating what they wanted!! he brought juiceboxes!!!!!!! tsumugi we bonded over being DMs how are you mad at me now

What if. What if they're siblings. What if one of their parents is a Team DR executive/ some higher up. What if they both auditioned for the mastermind. Pitched in their ideas. What if angry pg Tsumugi left a letter for her future self talking about her bitch ass brother stealing her chance to finally get their attention. What if post game Tsumugi lived to see said parent never visit either of them despite working in the same building. What if she saw her old self in Shuichi, nearly mirror like. What if it terrified her

Sini: Not getting the role was the best thing to happen to her…